Book Page Valentine Banner

Happy Monday!  Hope your weekend was spectacular.  We enjoyed 70 degree weather on Saturday,  Sunday started out at 70 and it poured rain all day, and today it's 30 with sleeting rain.  Welcome to winter in Nashville.  The poor birds were so confused, they were just singing their little hearts out on Saturday.  I wanted to tell them not to fall for it, it isn't spring yet - just one of those cruel tricks that the weather gods play on us sometime.  I am sure they realized it by last night.  Poor little birds.

Now for a reminder - Valentine's Day is one month from today.  That's right ladies and gents, one month from today.  So I guess you know what I spent time doing over the weekend.  You guessed right!  It was time to make some Valentine decorations.

There is still a huge pile of book pages from my wreath making project so it was natural to use some of those.  I had 4 sheets of Valentine scrapbook paper that I bought last year and never used, and there was the $1.00 felt heart garland I found at the Dollar Tree last week.

This garland is really cute with lots of felt heart hooked together with little rings that allow you to slip the hearts right off if needed.  The only problem is the hearts all hang sideways because of the way the garland is made.   I know, what does one expect for a dollar?  But, they are nice and uniform in size, the garland is 9 feet long and I didn't have to cut out any red felt hearts!  I did have an idea in mind for these hearts.

To make my garland, I figured I needed 10 of the book pages.  I put all ten pages together, folded them in half without creasing them and "dovetailed" them with a pair of scissors. (That means to cut at an angle from the corner to the middle of the page.  I do it with ribbon mostly).  Dovetailing will make the pages look like this one on the bottom.  By doing them all at the same time, they will all be cut exactly alike.

Next, I cut out hearts from the scrap book paper in two different sizes.  I decided which ones I wanted on which pages, mixed and matched the designs, glued the hearts together, and then glued the hearts on each page.

Using a piece of sisal twine the length of the mantel with just a little allowance for some "swag", I hot glued the tops of the pages to the twine, spacing the pages out so there would be room for some of the red felt hearts between each page in the banner.

I took the garland apart in groups of 3's and 2's and hooked the rings over the sisal twine so that the hearts would hang down instead of sideways.  Ta dah.  Done.  How easy was that?

The two glittered hearts on the mantel came in a package of 5 hearts of different sizes from guess where?  Yep, the Dollar Tree.  Lots of glitter and no cutting.  I just leaned them against two votive cups on the mantel.  Done!

I love easy projects that are colorful, did not cost much and make me happy.  Perhaps this will give you an idea for a Valentine project for your home, school room or Sunday school room.  You can buy an entire used book if you need pages for next to nothing at a used book store, or perhaps you have one at home that you can use.  Some colored paper, sisal twine, felt hearts, and you can have an entire banner for just a few dollars.  That is my kind of price!

Tomorrow, I will share some other projects with you that are fun and easy.  After spending years working in a flower shop, Valentine's Day was NOT my favorite holiday for years and years due to the stress of meeting everyone's expectations.  Now, Valentine's is fun again and everyone needs to know they are loved.  Don't forget!  One month.  Go.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.   Margaret Atwood